Barley producers could soon be flocking to Kindersley.
Brian Rossnagel, a longtime barley and oat breeder at the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre, said CDC Kindersley, a two-row barley variety recently registered in Canada, has the potential to replace Metcalfe and Kendall as one of the dominant malting varieties in the West.
Kindersley, named after the town in west central Saskatchewan, has a quality profile that is ideally suited to the brewing and malting industries.
The variety, which was registered last year, features low protein levels, high enzyme activity and good extract values. It is also low in beta glucan, which malting barley buyers are beginning to watch more closely.
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Kindersley the town was named after Robert Molesworth Kindersley, an English businessperson, stockbroker and railway investor who served as governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company from 1915-25.
“We see Kindersley as a definite replacement for Metcalfe and Kendall,” Rossnagel told seed growers in Saskatoon last month.
“From a quality and a marketing point of view, one of its major features … is that is has considerably lower beta glucan in the barley, and thus in the malt, than anything that’s been out there before. That has become an increasingly important issue with the purchasers of malting barley.”
Rossnagel said CDC Kindersley will produce yields similar to CDC Copeland and protein similar to AC Metcalfe. Straw height is shorter than Copeland and maturity is earlier.
The variety is handled by SeCan and should be available to commercial grain growers in a few years.
Kindersley was one of a several new CDC barley lines highlighted during a meeting of the Saskatchewan Seed Growers Association.
Another was CDC Anderson, a six-row malting variety that yields four percent greater than Legacy and Tradition. It also offers low protein and beta glucan levels and has a good disease resistance package.
The CDC line HB08305 has potential as a specialty barley for niche food markets, Rossnagel said. It was supported for registration last year and was expected to complete the registration process in early 2011.
HB08305, which will be named CDC Hilose once registration is complete, is a high amylose hulless barley with high beta glucan content.
While brewers and maltsters prefer barley varieties that are low in beta glucan, some specialty food manufacturers are showing interest in varieties that are high in beta glucan and amylose starch. Beta glucan derived from barley is known to reduce blood sugar levels in diabetics.
Varieties high in amylose starch have a higher dietary fibre content and are digested more slowly, making them ideally suited for use in low glycemic index diets.
Amylose levels in CDC Hilose will be 40 percent. Most barley varieties have amylose levels of 25 percent.
Rossnagel acknowledged there are few if any markets now for a variety such as CDC Hylose, but he said the line offers nutritional characteristics that should appeal to specialty food manufacturers.
“This is a total chicken and egg scenario,” he said. “There is no actual market for this material yet, but there is a fair amount of interest in the food industry in these high amylose types.”
Other barley lines could also be put forward for registration support at Prairie Grain Development Committee (PGDC) meetings in Winnipeg this month:
• TRO8116 is a two-row malting variety from the CDC with good enzyme activity, plump kernels and low beta glucan levels. Maturity is similar to CDC Copeland and yield is two percent higher.
• HB08304 is a two-row hulless malting line with AC Metcalfe protein levels, reduced beta glucan content, high extract rates and acceptable protein levels. It produces plump grain with high kernel weights and good threshability.
• FB204 is a two-row, smooth-awned forage barley that produces large plump kernels with high test weights. Straw strength is good while forage and grain yields are five percent higher than CDC Cowboy. FB204 offers resistance to stem rust and covered smut. In new oat varieties, CDC Seabiscuit was recently registered for commercial production. It is a high-yielding, low-fat, milling oat that out-yielded CDC Dancer by 12 percent in Saskatchewan trials conducted in 2009 and 2010. Straw strength is equal to that of Morgan.
Other new oat lines are expected to be registered in early 2011:
• OT3039 is a CDC feed variety that will be named CDC Nasser once registration is complete. It has a low-lignan hull with high fat content and good grain quality. It is billed as a replacement for CDC SO-I with lower hull content.
• OT3037 is a milling variety that will be named CDC Big Brown once registration is complete. Big Brown is a brown-hulled line with very good grain and milling yield. Yield is about six percent higher than CDC Dancer.
• OT3044 is a specialty milling oat that will be named CDC Morrison. Rossnagel said the strength of CDC
Morrison is its nutritional profile. “It’s not the highest yielding variety
in the world, but it has what they call excellent nutritionals,” he said.
“It’s got high beta glucan, it’s got high protein and it’s got low fat, which are the key things that the milling industry is currently looking for.”
Yields will be similar to CDC Dancer and straw will be short and very strong.
At least one other CDC oat line, OT3050, will likely be put forward for registration support later this month at PGDC meetings in Winnipeg.
It is a milling oat line that yields higher than AC Morgan. It has good straw strength and milling yield and produces plump grain with high kernel weights. It is resistant to smut and has a good rust resistance package.
